Rest is a human need

At ten-years-old, while still an Orthodox Jew, I wondered why an all-powerful God had to take a day off each week to rest. I also worried about what bad things might happen to us if such a controlling God should fall asleep at the wheel of the universe. As an atheist, I now appreciate the sentiment of a perceptive biblical writer more than I did when I believed rest was a commandment from God.

Occasionally the Bible gets it right, and this is one of those occasions. Regardless of theological views, I think we all appreciate the message that humans, including presidents, should periodically take time off from their usual routines to refresh and rejuvenate. I came to this position relatively late in life. I was a workaholic who would normally get by on at most five hours of sleep per night. I felt there would be plenty of time to “sleep” when I was dead, just as I “slept” for billions of years before I was born. I knew I had one life to live, and I wanted to make the most of it.

My views began to change not after consulting holy books but by training to run marathons. I learned from experience that I could do better by alternating hard and easy days and by taking a day off each week. More is not always better. There is now considerable evidence that the ideal amount of sleep for most of us is between 6.5 and 7.5 hours per night. (http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1812420,00.html) I now try to get as much as 6.5, along with daily relaxation breaks.

But even when religions get it right, they get it wrong. When I was taught to rest on the Sabbath (meaning Saturday not Sunday, because I was Jewish, not Christian), I also learned what “rest” meant. My religious community said we couldn’t turn on the light (defined as “work”) to start the synagogue service, but we could ask a Shabbas Goy (Gentile) to do it for us. For the same reason, we couldn’t push an elevator button, but we could ride on an elevator that had been programmed to stop at every floor. On the other hand, we couldn’t rest in a moving car or airplane because that, too, is “work.”

As a youngster, I was fascinated by Talmudic arguments about what constitutes work. I learned that it was work to carry a handkerchief in my pocket, but I could pin one on my pocket and wear it as apparel. Perhaps these kinds of arguments help explain why so many Jews grow up to be lawyers (or atheists).

While religions are free to make rules for their adherents, my concern is when religions make rules for those outside the faith. Many communities still have “blue laws,” designed to enforce religious standards for all. This includes forcing merchants to close on Sunday and prohibiting the sale of alcohol on Sunday.How God went from resting on Saturday to becoming a teetotaler on Sunday requires considerably more faith than I have.

In any case, we don’t need religion to give us permission or a reason to enjoy life to its fullest, and that includes taking a nap in a hammock on a warm summer day, or a week at the beach in Martha’s Vineyard. Mother Nature lets us know when we need a break, and it’s best not to mess with Mom.

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Herb Silverman is Founder and President of the Secular Coalition for America, and founder of the Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry in Charleston, South Carolina. He was founder and faculty advisor to the College of Charleston student Atheist/Humanist Alliance. He is a board member of the American Humanist Association as well as a Humanist Celebrant, advisory board member of the Secular Student Alliance, and member of the Advisory Council of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. He has served on the boards of the Atheist Alliance and the Humanist Institute. He has written for "On Faith" at the Washington Post and for the Huffington Post. He has spoken at a number of conferences and written articles for many freethought publications. He has appeared in a number of debates on topics like: Can we be moral without God? Does God exist? Is America a Christian nation? He has also debated at the Oxford Union in Oxford, England on the topic: Does American Religion Undermine American Values? Here is information on his recent book, Candidate Without a Prayer: An Autobiography of a Jewish Atheist in the Bible Belt http://pitchstonepublishing.com/site/candidate_without_a_prayer.html

http://www.blogger.com/profile/16641266062186767500 Keith Parsons

Herb,

I don't know if you saw the Bill Maher movie "Religulous." I didn't like it much. Making fun of truckstop evangelists is shooting fish in a barrel. Let him take on William Lane Craig (I have, BTW). Still, there was one bit in the movie I really enjoyed. Maher interviewed an orthodox Jewish businessman who produces ingenious devices that permit the orthodox to do things on the Sabbath that are normally forbidden–without, technically, breaking the rules. For instance, there is a telephone that constantly generates numbers, but when you enter a number it stops generating all but the one you put in. That way, technically, you are not dialing a number! He had a roomful of devices like this. What I wonder about is what conception of God must lie behind such inventions. Do they think that God is some sort of moronic pettifogger who endorses such cheap tricks? It reminds me of Bertrand Russell's story about the nuns who never completely undressed, but kept on a nightgown even when bathing. When asked why they did so since no man could see them, they replied that the Lord was present. So God is some sort of peeping tom who can see through walls but not through a nightgown??? I often think that we atheists have a more elevated conception of God than many believers do.

Orthodox Jews try to keep as many of the 613 commandments as is humanly possible. They can’t fulfill all of them, since many have to do with animal sacrifice at a Temple that no longer exists. Another commandment that some Orthodox can’t keep is belief in God, since we can’t will ourselves to believe (something I never understood about Pascal’s wager). I have an Orthodox Jewish colleague who is as much an atheist as I am. For him, it’s about tradition and discipline. What’s God got to do with it? Nothing. So for those who simply want to keep the letter of these commandments, it pays to find a good lawyer (read Talmudic scholar) who can make a case for your doing what you want to do.